November 20, 2006

One of our native flours is Mesquite, which has the added benefit of being gluten-free. I have been reading various articles and recipes about Mesquite flour and wanted to give it a try. After looking at the various companies that carried the flour, I decided to give order mine from Native Seeds out of Tucson, Arizona.

According to Native Seeds, the flour is a good source of calcium, manganese, potassium, iron and zinc. Additionally, it has the ability to stabilize blood sugar. It's taste is fruity or a caramel-like flavor. I found the flour to have a very pleasant taste which is mild. My kids liked it too.

I took my basic Chocolate Chip Recipe and modified it so that the flavors blended with the Mesquite flour.

Gluten-Free Mesquite Chocolate Chip Cookies

3/4 cup Brown Rice Flour

3/4 cup Oat Flour

1/2 cup Sweet Rice Flour

1/4 cup Mesquite Flour

1 tsp Baking Soda

1 tsp Sea Salt

1 cup Organic Butter

3/4 cup Organic Cane Sugar

3/4 cup packed Organic Brown Sugar

1 tsp Vanilla Flavoring

2 large Organic Eggs

2 cups Chocolate Chips

Optional: 1 cup chopped Pecans

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Then combine the flours, baking soda and salt into a small bowl. In a mixing bowl, cream the butter. Then add the sugars and vanilla flavoring. Add the eggs, beating well after each one. Slowly add in flour mixture. Stir in the chocolate chips and nuts. Drop by rounded teaspoons onto the parchment paper. Bake for approximately 12 minutes or until golden brown. Cool before removing from the parchment paper. (Check the consistency of your batter once you've add all the flours. I added an additional 2 - 3 Tbs of sweet rice flour to make the batter firmer.)

The cookies turned out beautifully. The kids liked them and thought they were a great addition to our range of chocolate chip cookies. I agreed with them. My husband, who hadn't eaten anything gluten-free for awhile, thought that the cookie texture was a bit grainy. I agreed, however, the texture wasn't bothersome like it can be with other flour mixtures. We all agreed - these are worth making again.

1 comment:

Thanks for such a great recipe. My kids have been on a restrictive diet for about 4 months now, and we've been missing cookies :) I subsituted coconut creme for the butter, 3/4 c honey for both sugars, and used egg replacer mixed with rice milk. They were great. :)